


Stupid crossbow...

by gottablast15



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game), The Walking Dead (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 23:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9521432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gottablast15/pseuds/gottablast15
Summary: Clementine thinks less of herself because of a simple accident.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't really know how to use a crossbow but I watched a short video on youtube lol. Fluff and angst! Platonic relationship. Also, please let me know if the text is easy enough to read. I tried to make it as clear as possible. Italics are flashback.

Rebecca was sitting in the living room reading some old book she had found from the cabin while Pete, Luke and Nick had gone out hunting with Clementine. Pete and Nick were a little reluctant at first, but the girl had insisted arguing with 'needing experience'. Though, well, it it a good argument seeing as she is eleven already and the faster she gets it in this kind of world they live in, the better.

They'd been out for a couple hours until Rebecca heard the door opening and chatting from the kitchen:

"No, really Clem, it's fine. As I said, Nick wasn't any better than you when it was his first time."

"Yeah, and you're not letting me forget it either..." Nick scoffed at Pete's lame try to cheer up Clementine.

"But that was then and this is now", Clementine seemed dissappointed.

"Hey, you'll get another chance, okay? Don't beat yourself up for this. Plus we have some leftovers enough for everybody from yesterday." Luke patted Clem's shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile. Clementine half-smiled back and left to the living room.

She sat on the sofa next to Rebecca and let her head fall back. The hunt hadn't gone as well as Clem thought it would go in her head before they left.

_"Hey, Clem, look;" Luke whispered to Clementine, pointing at a deer on the river peacefully looking at the water, sparkling in the sunlight._

_"Think we can catch it?" she looked at Luke with glistening eyes, "That's a one big deer..." Clementine thought out loud._

_"Oh sweetie, that's not even in the top ten of what we've seen" Pete chuckled at her innocence. The girl had a lot to learn yet. She was probably raised in some suburbans, I mean, when Pete was her age, he had gone on dozen hunts. Well, okay, to be fair, he did come from a long line of hunters. But maybe it was better that way. But now things had changed and it was time for the kid to learn how to hunt._

_Clementine blushed a little, but nobody seemed to notice since they all were hiding in the shadows behind a bush._

_"Okay, so now we're gonna rustle the bushes so the deer get's interested and moves closer to us so we can shoot it with a crossbow." Pete explained clearly._

_"Okay, but wouldn't a sniper be more effective?"_

_"Yeah, but I couldn't find it" Nick spoke up from behind "we usually use that but this is a backup plan."_

_Luke continued: "Also, choosing between a sniper and a crossbow the latter is easier option for a beginner."_

_"Here, Clem" Nick handed the crossbow. She had seen somebody use crossbow once in tv when her dad was watching a movie late at night and somebody was shooting a bird in the woods with it. Didn't look too hard, should be fine. Clementine wanted to prove that she wasn't just a stupid kid and tried clumsily load the thing._

_"Yeah, go Clem! That's it" Luke cheered on. "But watch out for that-!" Too late. Clementine shot a miss and the deer turned around at the direction of the four of them foolishly staring at the animal. Everyone stood still hoping that maybe it didn't notice them, but it ran away anyway._

_Clementine sighed in defeat and shame, face dropping. "I'm sorry..."_

_"Ahh... Well, you know, accidents happen. I'm sure if you had had a chance you'd done real good, kid." Pete stood up._

_"Yeah, he's right Clem." Luke and Nick just slightly nodded their heads to further support the sentence._

_"Okay..." she said unconvinced as they started to head back home._

Rebecca didn't even greet the girl, just read brows furrowed.

"Hi Rebecca... What are you reading?"

"A book." Rebecca answered, irritated. Didn't even look up.

"What book?" Clementine tried again in the hopes of lighting the mood.

"A book about none of your business." The woman spat out. "Listen, just because you managed to fool most of the group, doesn't mean that you're out in the clear. Newsflash kid; you're still a stranger. And don't think for a second that we like you being here. We don't, and you're overstaying your welcome." Clementine stayed quiet. Even if she had been forced to grown this hard-like shell over the past years due to the shit that had happened, what Rebecca said still stung, because inside that shell was still this kind little girl.

Rebecca seemed surprised of this taken-aback look that Clementine had on her face so she decided to leave it at that and left upstairs. Clementine followed but left into a different direction leading in Sarah's room.

"Oh, hi Clem." Sarah greeted politely.

"Hi Sarah." Sarah noticed Clementine's melancholy vibe; "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing... Rebecca's just giving me a little hard time."

"Oh... Yeah, she can be like that. Don't take it personally."

"Why are you so nice to me?"

Sarah looked up, surprised at this sudden question.

"What?"

"I asked why are you so nice to me." Clementine repeated, Sarah just stayed still so Clementine continued; "It's just that you don't even know me. Rebecca might be a jerk, but she's right. I know I probably would act kinda same way if I was in her shoes." Clementine finished with her face looking down.

"..." Sarah sighed unaudibly.

"I can't even load a goddamn crossbow..."

Sarah stood up, closed her book and laid it on her bedspread. "Maybe you need some time to cool off. I'm gonna go eat something. Uhh... Feel better?" she did somewhat awkward hand-gesture and left. With that Clementine went to take a nap. Later someone knocked on the door.

"Clementine?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Clementine?" someone whispered. Clementine laid still pretending to be asleep so whoever it was would leave. "Clem you awake?"

Clementine sat up. There was no point ignoring, since she was awake anyway and there was no point staying in the room, and if she went downstairs they would just wonder what woke her up and put two and two together and wonder why she ignored them.

"You got a sec?" Luke spoke quietly, but not whispering anymore as he shut the door carefully.

"Yeah I guess..." Clementine bit her teeth together still a little embarrassed of earlier.

"Hey... How y'doing?" Luke smiled that boyish half-smile of his.

"I'm fine, I was just sleeping." she forced a smile on her face to not be rude, avoiding eye contact.

"I uhh... I woke you up didn't I?" Luke chuckled softly at that. "Sorry, kid."

"It's fine, better to wake up now so I'll get sleep later." Clem shifted her feet as she straightened her back.

"I just wanted to check up on you, you seemed kinda upset about earlier. Also, Sarah told me you were actin' kinda weird."

"Oh..."

"Wanna talk about it? I'm here for you you know."

"It's just... Why are you guys so nice to me?" Clementine squinted her eyes and lowered her brows in confusion, trying to understand. Luke opened his mouth at first as if to say something, but closed it in the loss of words.

"I just feel like... Like I'm just a load on your back. I can't even do something as simple as load a crossbow..."

Luke's eyebrows shot up; "This what this is all about?" He leaned back on one hand and the other on his lap, looking completely dumbfounded, "Clem, i-it's just a stupid firearm!", he moved his arm around the air to eccentuate the effect, "Doesn't mean crap. Besides, nobody's good at anything right off the bat. People are not machines, they gotta practice." He lowered himself, trying to find eye connection to her eyes that were looking at the floor.

"It's not just that either... I think I just feel useless. I haven't gone to schools, I don't really know stuff like you guys do. I wanted to impress you guys by trying to show that I could handle a gun, since that's what I'm best at..."

"Hey, it was an accident, we all saw that."

"Well, you're only half right because..."

Luke stared at the girl expectingly, waiting for her to elaborate on her secret.  
"Because I've only seen someone use a crossbow once on tv when I was younger. It just looked easy in the movies."

Luke didn't say anything, because he honestly didn't know what to say. It went on for a couple of minutes, until he had a thought.

"Hey. Come with me, okay?" he took Clementine's hand and led the both of them out of the room, through the hallway into the backyard. She had a clue of what they were going to do, and it confirmed when she saw a crossbow leaning against the wooden pole.

The air was nice and crisp, and there were sounds of little birds chirping. For once there weren't any clouds blocking the beautiful autumnly sunset that had shades of reds, oranges and yellows in the sky.

Before Clem even realised, Luke had picked up the crossbow and got down on one knee behind the girl. He took her hands and guided them on the weapon;

"See these strings hangin' on the side? Pull them until you hear a click meaning the colored string is ready for the arrow."

"Like..." a small 'click' sound was heard, "...this?"

"Yeah, that's it. Then remove the loading string and set the-"

"...Arrow on it's place and move the safety off."

"Huh. Guess you picked up something from that movie after all." Luke smiled at Clem and she smiled back, genuenily this time.

Clementine put the safety back on and removed the arrow. 

"Hey Luke.."

"Yeah?"

"Can you just like maybe... Not tell the others?"

"That y'couldn't load a crossbow correctly?"

"Yeah. Gotta keep my street-creditability you know?" she said jokingly. Luke laughed a little harder than he should've, because he did not expect that.

"I promise."


End file.
